thoughts about marketing sparked by events

April 2010

04/17/2010

Its perhaps not surprising that our government organisations adopt the do what I say, not do what I do attitude. In this particular case, I received a very nice letter and leaflet telling me that the NHS are creating electronic Summary Care Records over the next 18 months or so.

Now best practice would indicate that consumers should be specifically asked to opt in for programmes like this. But clearly the designers of the programme have read Nudge. They know that asking for opt in will make it much harder to get people signed up. So the nice leaflet gives you three different ways to opt out, buried at the back of the leaflet and mixed in with the rest of the text. There isn't a clear form with a nice check box and prepaid envelope to fill in.

In this case, I suspect the society good does outweigh the individual privacy concern. My problem is that we are asked, as commercial organisations, to take extraordinary care not to assume the right to contact or sign people up for programmes in an unfair way. New European legislation puts a big onus on organisations to prove they have the right to make contact with individuals and take actions based on opt ins.

Our government agencies seem to believe that none of this applies to them and their programmes.

04/09/2010

Recently I have spent a lot of time and effort hunting down a particular Samsung home cinema component. I've tried online, I've tried a variety of stores, I've even tried phoning Samsung themselves. When I get home I will have a shiny new toy to play with, but it was insanely difficult to get.

It seems that Samsung has run its inventory right down in the UK in anticipation of new product announcements and new stock. That is a pretty good trick if you can do it. But they have also decided to keep an embargo on what is coming and when.

There are a whole bunch of complex but boring reasons why I really wanted this specific component, and there isn't really a direct competitor. Now I am wondering if what I bought is going to be replaced by something better and cheaper in four weeks. So instead of being truly excited, I already have some buyer's remorse.

Buying any technology product runs some risk of obsolescence. But I will be really mad at Samsung if I have paid a premium for an end of line product. And given that there is already a Samsung laptop, Samsung monitor, Samsung large screen LCD screen and now a Samsung home cinema already in my small flat, and that I am about go to and buy a second laptop and second LCD screen, I may or may not stay a Samsung loyalist in the next two months. But all my fears could be groundles. More inventory of the same component ae just on a boat and taking a while to arrive. I sure hope so. But if that is truly the case, why not just say so. "We under forecast demand. The product was more popular than we dared hope. And we will have more inventory on XX date."